Morning ski

Yesterday I went skate skiing before work. The second my eyes open I am fully awake. I don't really have a waking up period, so when I turned over and saw 6:03 I figured I'd go skiing! I threw some clothes on, ate a bowl of cereal, grabbed some work clothes and headed to the snow. I usually go to Bachelor, but before work will opt for Mesiner more often. I should have brought my classic skis because there as about 4" of powder on the trails. No worries, it made for more resistance and a better leg workout! Halfway up the tangent turnoff it started snowing. A little over an hour later I was done with my ski and on my way to work. I love winter.





When the time changes next weekend my morning ski will be in the dark. UHG

BLAH

I don't feel like writing today, I'm kind of worn out. I rode home last night and then rode on my trainer for about an hour. I've really taken to the cooking shows and since there is always one on, guess what I watched?

Anyway, I woke up early today and went swimming before work. Now I have goggle eyes and look funny.

My ride to work yesterday:

White Elephant

Derek and I had a busy Saturday. We went skate skiing up at Bachelor on Saturday - even ventured out on the black diamond trails. Luckily about 3" of snow had fallen on top of the groomed surface so we weren't barreling down the hills at breakneck speed. After that, we went to a little get together for Webcyclery and the upcoming race season. Derek and I are going to race for them this year. I'll just be doing a mishmash of Super D races, downhill, a couple road time trials, and who knows what else. I'm not going to do any full training or racing that would put my knee under too much stress since it still hurts with lots of riding. It was fun to meet the team and hang out.

Saturday night Derek and I hosted a little Potluck dinner party for the Executive Committee of the Bend Bella Cyclists. It was our postponed holiday party...really just an excuse to get together, drink, and eat. Tradition dictated that we also have a white elephant gift exchange. I don't thing there is a person on earth who hasn't been involved in one of these, they are a riot! I didn't take any pics so I'm borrowing these from Chandra. I think the "best" gift were some sex instruction tapes!!!



Here is what I ended up with. It's a canvas shopping bag with wheels and everything. Isn't it lovely?

TGIF

Tonight is the Polar Plunge. When I rode by this morning on my way to work there were already some tents set up so it looks like things are coming together. I dipped my finger in the river and yep, it's cold. Absolutely stunning scenery this morning since there is snow every where and the sun was stunning. Here are some pics from yesterday morning.

I'm headed down that...carefully. I have old skool V brakes on my winter commuter and when the rim gets cold and wet and the pads get frozen, they don't tend to really stop that well.





HAVE A GOOD WEEKEND

My snow dance worked!

Yesterday I was pouting because the forecasters had predicted snow and when I woke up there was pretty much nothing. By lunch it was a wet semi-snow for my ride to the gym...really more of an annoyance because it wasn't sticking or anything. By the time I rode home it was a full snow and a bit of accumulation was starting so I stopped to take a couple pics. They aren't the best because I didn't want to take my gloves off and it was getting dark.





My snow dance paid off, in some areas of my ride in this morning I'd say there are a few inches! I took the long way in and arrived covered in powder from the tree branches.

HAPPY THURSDAY!

Buyout

Last week I accepted an offer for a new job. Good thing, because on Monday Eschelon announced they are buying the company I currently work for. Press Release here

So I will be starting a new job March 15th. I'll still be able to bike to work because there are showers and it's only about 1/2 mile further away...BUT, I can take more trail to get to it and less streets.

It's as if my work computer knew it wasn't needed anymore. Yesterday when I came to work I smelled burning coming from my hard drive. Evidently the fan quit wokring and the motherboard fried. So I was without a computer most of the day. Wow, it takes something like that to make me realize just how much of my job is computer oriented..about 90%!

Snow is in the forecast and I think I'm going to try to get a ski in before work tomorrow.

Happy Wednesday!

Wasn't to be

The Pine Mountain Observatory was our goal...we almost made it. It was perfect riding weather except for the strong winds out in the middle of the desert. We consulted our Forest Service Map and planned a route which had us riding all the way out China Hat Road hitting the gravel road, past the caves, hanging a left where the 2015/18 split is by the OHV area and continuing around the backside of Horse Ridge and out into the flats by Millican. Then we took the highway about 3 miles and turned right at the Observatory Road. The ride up until that point was very different from much I've done. The gravel and dirt of China Hat and 2015 was sometimes challenging to negotiate, but really not all that bad. The vegetation is very typical of the high desert and I enjoyed it. There is an utter maze of fireroads back there and I'm wondering if I could somehow get to Idaho on dirt. That might be a future endeavor.

By the time we got to the highway the wind was pretty strong and we had gotten a late start so it was already a bit after 2. It was a struggle to keep my bike pointed straight and upright in the gusts. I had to focus intensely on balancing and sticking as far to the right of the shoulder as possible. We were pretty tired once we turned onto the Observatory road, I underestimated the distance we had ridden at this point. Derek informed me that he was riding with only one easier gear and with the wind it was going to be at least an hour still to the top (6700'). My legs were feeling really good still, in fact, I was still in the big ring but my shoulders and neck were just really tired. Since we were in a pretty remote spot the whole day, we had elected to wear camelbaks instead of trying to get by on water bottles. So after about 5 minutes of deliberations I made the executive decision to turn back.

I don't know the exact mileage for our our route since neither of us has a cycle computer , but I'm guessing it had to be somewhere above 60 miles. That's double the longest amount either of us has ridden in probably 5 months. Woohoo! Anyway, here are a couple pictures.

About mile 21 I'd guess. This is the split between gravel road 18 and 2015 (It think that's the right #)



Map check by Evans Well.



Desert vegetation all around.

Happy Friday

Warmth is in the forecast for tomorrow - 62 to be exact. I'm thinking of riding out and up to the Pine Mountain Observatory. It looks like there might be plenty of snow on the "road" that goes up to the top, but we'll see. I haven't been up there before and would like to give it a go.

We just got a shipment of stuff from E-Caps yesterday so I had some new duds for my ride into work this morning, which was rather pleasant. I got a couple sprinkles last night on my ride home but nothing this morning.

Oh, heads up, I wouldn't recommend sliding into home.

Wow

Two words: Wind Advisory

I just took on the part of a plastic bag in the wind for my lunchtime ride. Buffeted from the left, the right, headon...it was comical.

Is my hair messed up?

First the healthy stuff. It has been nice enough at lunch the last few days to get rides in. I've been on my cross bike just kind of wandering and linking together backroads. I'm reading The Lady and the Panda right now and enjoying it. It's about Ruth Harkness, the first American who brought a panda back to the US. I can imagine it's me wandering through Shanghai, Chengdu...traveling through valleys and cliffs, camping in the ruins of a Buddhist temples...All that when really, I'm just riding along the river in Bend or back dirt roads and trails or something.

Hey, is that a trail?



On to the fabulous Valentines dessert! I was feeling brave and decided to make truffles. I watched some cooking shows, looked through some recipes and decided upon one. So here they are, chocolate truffles (three varieties). First there are the ones dipped in a peanut butter chocolate sauce sprinkled with powdered sugar, next you have ones rolled in chopped peanuts and last of all, some rolled in shredded coconut. The recipe made about 3 dozen so we have LOTS of leftovers. Sooooo good!



Have a good sugar high day!

I leave you with this: Man is the animal that intends to shoot himself out into interplanetary space, after having given up on the problem of an efficient way to get himself five miles to work and back each day. - Bill Vaughan

Happy Valentines Day

Simpsons fans will get this

Guess what this week is?

I forgot to mention it in my last post. This week is Random Acts of Kindness week. I was kind enough to let the IRS know that they sent us an erroneous refund letter for $80K.

Valentine's Day is tomorrow! I am making Derek a special dessert, hopefully it will turn out - I'll post pics either way.

Speaking of pics, I captured this



Do you remember your first car? My first ever vehicle was a little Toyota pickup. If you carried enough speed into corners you could make it skip since the bed was so light. (Not that I ever did this mom). Anyway, this guy has a creative solution for winter. I've seen the usual bags of concrete, but never two giant tree stumps! The funny thing is, right now I'm on only my second ever vehicle and as long as this one keeps running I'll probably keep it forever. It's a 1997 and has just 83K on it right now. I think my road bike has more than that many miles on it.

Happy Tuesday!

I've been pretty busy the last couple of days and haven't taken any new pictures. I keep hoping I'll wake up to snow, but this morning was just a little bit of slippery road for my ride into work. I opted for a spin on my trainer last night. Lots of times I can solve a lot of problems and do my best thinking while I ride. When I worked downtown back in San Diego I would ride to Fiesta Island in the morning and do laps around it before heading to work. An hour of 3 mile laps can be very theraputic. It's just you and your head. Sure I'd wear headphones a lot and listen to music, but sometimes I'd just think. These days we are always on the go and distracted by tv, driving (hopefully not distracted), kids, working, go go go, that sometimes we forget to think.

Since I'm paying for it, (see Juniper Fee Increase post, I've been sitting in the steam room for 15 minutes or so after my swims and I'm addicted to it. I always laugh when I step in though because I think of the Seinfeld episode when Kramer is in the sauna and comments how hot it is...something like, "Whew, it's like a sauna in here." Apparently there are quite a few health benefits to steam rooms. I kid you not, the people on all sides of me at work have been sick off and on for about 2 months now and I am on the brink of paranoia. Everytime they sneeze or cough I cringe. I don't want to get sick!

TGIF

Lunch Ride

Yesterday I went for a ride at lunch with a co-worker. It's nice to have someone to push me. When I was racing I spent a lot of time training on my own - it just wasn't a good use of time to try to train with someone because I had specific things I needed to do and my heart rate dictated how hard I had to go and what not. Sure, I ride with my husband a lot, but we've gotten so used to each other and he has a habit of just always riding behind me. So, I rarely get challenged unless I'm challenging myself. Yesterday was different though, I rode at whatever pace my coworker wanted and it was great when he cranked it up a notch and I had to chase. We headed up Skyliners and back for a good tempo ride. Oh, and get this, I was in short sleeves due to the heat wave!!!!

On the way back, about half a mile from the office I got a flat. Booooooo. Note to self...clean rims because they are FILTHY!

Lather up

It was "warm" this weekend so I went riding both days, though Sunday was nicer than Saturday, I had a better ride on Saturday. We went out to Smith Rock and rode all kinds of trails, had so much fun exploring new areas. We really are fortunate in Bend that we live in an area with so much somewhat undeveloped land. You can still feel like a settler - out explorin' and stuff. Granted, I'm riding an expensive bike and not a horse, and I'm wearing technical clothing instead of a long dress or something, but still.

Happy Monday morning!

We started around the backside with a long long climb up a to Gray Butte. It was snowy in little patches, but a very nice ride up. After turning onto the singletrack the snow pretty much died off and the trail was nice and tacky.



The view looking South towards Bend. The clouds were threatening looking, but it turned out to be pretty temperate weather. I think it was around 45-50 that day.



Giardia Canyon was interesting, very quiet back in there with lots of cool rock formations to look at.



Then we hit the frozen stream and tested the ice. Plenty thick!



You never know when you're going to have to simulate warfare and crawl under fences, that's just the kind of thing that could happen on one of my rides.



The shaded canyon between the two buttes was still frozen and snowy.



Sunday was sunnier and warmer - I think my face got a little tanned! Apparently it's time to drag out the blow up pool toys and float the river because it's supposed to be another warm day!

Happy Monday!

Look out.



Lots going on this weekend. The Chevy Grad Prix Half Pipe and Slopestyle competitions are up at Bachelor, and the Bend Wintefest is all weekend downtown. I saw them building the big rail jump snowboard structure last night. Plus, it's the first Friday of the month so it's Art Walk as well!

Was it the Supersuckers that played last year for Winterfest? I remember that was a really fun time. I wish there was a good loud rough band like that playing this year. It was new and different to Bend. (maybe too rowdy?)

Since the weather is supposed to be warm, I'm thinking of heading to Smith Rock for a nice long ride. Pictures to follow of course!

As my mom always says, Take care of yourself because nobody else will.

TGIF!

I'm kind of bummed, Juniper Swim & Fitness increased their fees and now you can't just pay to swim. I don't go to Juniper to take any of the classes or use any of the workout equipment, I just swim. They have changed the fee structure so that now you are paying for the use of the fitness center as well.

Today might be the first day I rode in to work and was actually cold. I added an extra layer for my chest so I'm now wearing a jersey, a wind vest, a jacket, and a little reflective vest. I am hot by the time I get here, but starting out on a downhill is rough.

It looks like it's going to be "nice" this weekend so more riding is on the agenda. Tonight is the monthly Bend Bella Cyclist meeting and it should be fun. Melanie is going to do a slideshow on her mountain bike trip to Nepal this past fall. If there are any women in Bend out there reading this, you should stop in and check it out.